Princess Lalla Fatima Zohra

12:03AM BST 22 Oct 2003

Princess Lalla Fatima Zohra, who has died at the Royal Palace, Rabat, aged 77, was the only daughter of Mulay Abdul Aziz, the Boy Sultan, and a remarkable link with the Morocco that was; she devoted her later life to helping the women and other unfortunates of her country, earning the sobriquet Princess of the Poor.

Her principal achievement was the foundation of the Moroccan Women's Union, through which thousands of women gained economic self-sufficiency by means of making carpets, producing honey and breeding sheep and goats. Her broad, compassionate and modern concerns were a far cry from the medieval exoticism of her recent ancestry.

Lalla Fatima Zohra's father had succeeded as Sultan of Morocco in 1894, aged 12, following the death of his father, Mulay Hassan I, while camped in inhospitable territory in the southern Tadla region of Morocco. Mulay Hassan's death had at first been kept secret, for fear of bringing tribes down from the hills to pillage the Imperial camp, and for two days his corpse, hidden within the State palanquin, made its way back towards the safety of Rabat.

From time to time the procession would stop, supposedly so that the Sultan might eat; food was borne in and out, though none but the slaves who knew the awful truth were permitted to enter the tent. After two days of forced marches through the summer heat, as Walter Harris put it in his classic Morocco That Was (1921), "the state of the Sultan's body told its own secret".

By now they were clear of danger, so it was admitted that the Sultan was indeed dead, and that his younger son, Mulay Abdul Aziz (primogeniture does not apply in the Alaouite dynasty), had succeeded him.

The young Sultan would later describe to Harris "the hurried arrival [two days later at Rabat] of the swaying palanquin bearing its terrible burden, five days dead in the great heat of summer; the escort, who had bound scarves over their faces - but even this precaution could not keep them from constant sickness - and even the mules that bore the palanquin seemed affected by the horrible atmosphere, and tried from time to time to break loose".

The succession of a minor gave rise to every form of intrigue at Court, with various factions vying to exercise the young Sultan's power. Mulay Abdul Aziz was an intellectual and charming conversationalist, with a keen, Western sense of humour. He was, moreover, genuinely interested in reform, but this was the last thing his viziers wanted, so they did all they could to divert him from taking an interest in affairs of State.

As Gavin Maxwell wrote in Lords of The Atlas (1966), "the whole emerging world of Western mechanical invention was dangled before his eyes".

Harris recorded how the Sultan's palaces became littered with what the British Press "once seriously described as 'evidences of Christian civilisation at Fez' . . .grand pianos and kitchen-ranges, automobiles [even though there was no road in all Morocco] and immense cases of corsets; wild animals in cages; and boxes of strange theatrical uniforms; barrel-organs and hansom-cabs; a passenger lift capable of rising to dizzy altitudes, destined for a one-storied palace; false hair; cameras of gold and silver with jewelled buttons; carved marble lions and living macaw parrots; steamlaunches and fireworks; ladies' underclothing from Paris, and saddlery from Mexico; trees for gardens that were never planted, or if planted, were never watered; printing-presses and fire-balloons - an infinity of all that was grotesque, useless and in bad taste".

The profligacy, which placed Morocco deeply in debt, allied to the Sultan's tendency to surround himself with Europeans (not to mention the bicycle-polo with ladies of the harem in fancy dress), did nothing for his reputation among his more frugal subjects. In 1907, five years before most of Morocco became a French protectorate, he was toppled after his army was mysteriously routed by a vastly inferior force belonging to his elder brother. As his viziers fled in panic, Abdul Aziz displayed a notable detachment from his personal situation. "This morning I was Sultan," he said calmly. "This evening I am a man like any other."

"What dignity he had lost at the hands of his viziers," wrote Maxwell, "he regained as they departed in flight."

Mulay Abdul Aziz survived to live in gentlemanly retirement at Tangier, surrounded by the remnants of his extensive harem. Several villas housed his chamberlains, secretaries, slaves, concubines and wives, and it was in one of these that his daughter, Princess Lalla Fatima Zohra, was born on June 13 1926. His other child, a son, was born in 1899.

Lalla Fatima Zohra, with her dark eyes and wonderfully calm demeanour, was the apple of her father's eye. Mindful of the effects of his own cloistered upbringing, the former Sultan was determined that her education would be modern, not that of a princess. Tangier's status as an international zone facilitated his plan, as did the 15 or so orphan girls that he took in, who accompanied young Fatima Zohra to the Italian school, and on to the French college. Her father supervised their homework, and planted in his daughter the idea that she would one day serve her country.

Fatima Zohra did not know what to do with her life, only that she wanted to be free, so she was horrified when her father mentioned that he had found her the ideal man. It was his cousin Prince Moulay Ben El Mehdi Alaoui, the tall, animated Khalifa of Tetuan, the Sultan's Viceroy in what was then Spanish Morocco. "He had other women, several children," she recalled. "When you are young, you want a husband to yourself."

But her father was determined, and in due course she was presented to the Khalifa for their engagement. Shortly afterwards, in 1943, her father died, leaving Fatima Zohra, still only 16, as head of the household and responsible for the care of her father's harem and servants for the remainder of their lives.

She trained with the Red Cross and worked as a nurse until her marriage, in 1949, at the age of 21. At dusk on the day of her wedding the nervous Princess left her tented camp, three miles outside Tetuan, bound for the Khalifa's palace. Beacons burned on the hilltops, and the dusty streets were lined with cheering crowds as her glass and gilt coach, drawn by four bays, made its way.

At the palace, beneath a ceiling painted with the whites of a million eggs, the couple celebrated a traditional marriage, including the dyeing of hands and feet with henna and the ceremony of passing beneath the sword - where the Princess signified submission to her husband's will. The magnificent festivities went on for days.

Their wedding presents included a cheque for a million pesetas from General Franco. They set up home in the Mexuar Palace, but on the slightest pretext she would return to her family and friends in Tangier.

In 1957, after Morocco had gained independence from France, her husband became the new country's first Ambassador to London. The Ambassadress soon attracted the attentions of the British press, which reported that she was enjoying the freedom of London, the shopping, the theatre, the ballet, the elegant European clothes (though she later reverted to traditional Moroccan dress).

Her husband had a subsequent tour as Ambassador to Italy, before they returned to Morocco in the early 1960s. It was then that Lalla Fatima Zohra, encouraged by her cousin, the newly-crowned King Hassan II, set about creating her women's union, which would fight for the emancipation of her sex - albeit without embarrassing the King, who still maintained a considerable harem.

For years to come, she travelled throughout Morocco, visiting the poorest villages and listening to the stories of women who had been beaten, neglected and divorced without pension. She urged them to form themselves into co-operatives. She pleaded with them to send their daughters to school, and to move back the age of marriage. She pushed for women to be represented at elections, and spoke about taboo subjects such as contraception and Aids.

After the death of her husband in 1984, Lalla Fatima Zohra was based permanently in her beloved Tangier, living in her turretted Gothic mansion on La Vielle Montagne, with its vast and beautiful garden kept up in the old way, looking out over the sea towards Spain. Her day began early, with an hour of prayer, followed by an hour of gardening and then an hour of walking.

She continued to tour the country to promote the work of the union, which sprouted 50 provincial offices and countless co-operatives.

The Princess was held in enormous affection and esteem by Moroccans and by the large expatriate community, particularly the British, among whom the late David Herbert, the interior decorator and "Uncrowned Queen" of Tangier, was one of her closest friends. She had a terrific presence and a wonderfully old-fashioned aura, yet no airs; and she was always interested in what others had to say.

King Hassan II never much cared for Tangier, so while he was alive Princess Fatima Zohra became his unofficial representative there, while also acting as a mentor to the future King Mohammed VI on his frequent visits to the city. She was a remarkable bridge between old Morocco and new, and between Moors and Europeans.

She was appointed a Commander of the Legion d'Honneur earlier this year.

She died on September 15, and is survived by her daughter, Lalla Keltum, and by three step-children.